Gabe Fluhrer

Why don't we all just go take our lives?

Not to be flippant, but that's where it ends up.

Now, most people don't ever get that consistent with it.

But when we think about moderate nihilism, it's what we see all around us.

And we see it in architecture.

Just notice how many buildings, modern buildings, don't have what you see the moment you drive on this campus, which is what?

Arches.

Arches, if you look at any building prior to about 1950, you'll see arches in those buildings.

I'll never forget when we lived in Philadelphia, and I would go through one of the old train stations there.

They always had these beautiful archways, and the everyday could be beautiful in that time.

Now, look at any school that's built.

It's a box.

Look at any modern apartment building.

They are meant to be useful but ugly.

And what is that but a concrete, quite literally, expression of nihilism?

Life is hard and harsh like the concrete that fills our city streets.

And this moderate nihilism stems from, I would argue, the Darwinist view of the world.

It begins with him.

He is one of the most transformative individuals in world history, but particularly for what we see with his nihilism.

And he felt it in his own life.